The Healthcare Marketplace: What do Patients Think about When Choosing a Doctor?

The Healthcare Marketplace: What do Patients Think
about When Choosing a Doctor?

The interesting thing about the
medical industry, in general, was that it did not originate as a good or
service. Doctors, and medical practitioners, for the longest time in human history,
were caregivers. Caregivers who know it was their ethical and spiritual
obligation to take care of patients who are in need of help.

These days, however, with the added
complication of insurance companies, and cost has changed how everyone looks at
medical care.

Patients are learning to shop
around. They are making choices regarding how they receive their medical care
and emergency services.

So, with this change in mindset for
the patients, how do doctors learn to navigate it? What sort of
healthcare marketing is most effective in winning patients over? Can doctors,
who don’t really think about competing in a marketplace learn to figure out
what patients want from them?

Thankfully, there are several
studies and panels, that can give us a window into how most patients prioritize
when choosing their healthcare services.

Quality
Matters, Right?

When gathering data, usually panels
or studies will get the information from a data pool of a sample size. It comes
from the basic idea that the best way to get data ethically is to directly ask
people.

And if you were to ask them, they
would most likely tell you what they believe to be true in their perception at
the time.

In the case of a 2005 Gallup,
the people who self-reported stated that the driving factor for them choosing a
hospital were “the hospital’s history of medical error or the type of
specialists or expertise that a hospital for a specific illness.”

How
to Judge Quality?

But there is something that is
missing about the information. For starters, where do they do their
research? According to the people who conducted the Gallup themselves,” The tricky part is getting healthcare consumers with
enough reliable information to make such assessments. When focus group
participants are asked how healthcare quality is judged, the room tends to get
silent. “

Interestingly enough, the perception
of quality is not the same definition from patient to patient. For example,
someone who is more analytically minded will look for objective data to analyze.
What happens with someone who relies on their social ties? Or someone who
has no idea what outside medical care looks like? There is where the problem
lies. How can they judge quality if they all use different barometers?

When words fall short, that is when
actions will help guide us.

Actions
Speak Louder than Words

While people self-report one thing,
sometimes, their behavior does not match up with what they say is important to
them. Not because people are trying to be deceitful or hypocritical. Usually,
it is a case of subconscious practices not catching up with their idealism.

Behavior is a better indicator of
what to expect from patients. This is because it is often what overrules our
better judgment, and gives us a more direct understanding of what patients
actually do.

For example, in the 2014 Healthgrades American Hospital Report to the Nation, a compilation of 3 years worth of
statistical data from medicare patients. According to that information,
“Fewer than half of Americans over age 26 gather extensive and detailed
information before selecting a physician or hospital.”

If that is the case, then what
really are the driving factors behind patients choosing doctors and hospitals?

Location,
Copay, and Friendly Staff

For starters, the biggest driving
factor, when choosing a hospital or a doctor, lies in location. According to
that behavioral data that I mentioned earlier, 62% of people who are choosing a
doctor, and 58% of people who choose a hospital all rely on location. After,
all when most people only visit hospitals for emergencies or the moment they
feel sick, there is a good chance that people aren’t going to shop around.

But what about when they do have a
choice to find a doctor or a specialist? If it isn’t an emergency situation,
what actually determines their decision to choose a doctor or hospital?

In the case of doctors, it depends
entirely on the friendliness of the staff. Again, it makes sense for a
marketing perspective because patients in a doctor’s office rarely spend time
with the doctor at all. They spend time with nurses, receptionists, and the
rest of the staff more than they do the doctor.

The driving decision behind the
choice of hospitals however, relies entirely on copay. If they are able to
afford healthcare, patients are more likely to visit a hospital, in spite of
its rating. Which again, plays into the common economic anxieties of lower and
middle-class American citizens.

Location, copay cost, and staff
interactions are the driving factors that get patients to keep coming back. Use
that knowledge to your advantage and find any possible weak spots in your
healthcare marketing.

If
you need more healthcare marketing advice or want to hire us for your practice,
please consider clicking on the pop up after visiting www.purpletieguys.com.